Phil Lesh101 wrote:When the stage volume gets too high its usually the guitar players fault... Because they need to play at a certain volume to get that damn jerry tone

Too many guitarists think they do. But they don't. One of my favorite examples would be Waldo's Deluxe Reverb type amp. Heard it live. Sounded great and Jerryesque. And he had it at a good level to get the tone but quiet enough to be mic'd into the PA.

We played a big stage on Saturday night with our buddies who have an Allmans tribute ... we jammed a few tunes at the end ... four guitarists, four drummers, two bassists and keys ... that was as loud as I've ever heard it onstage. Could not hear my guitar at all during Johnny B Goode.

tcsned wrote:It's a tough balance. Being loud enough so that your not just hacking as hard as you can and losing subtleties and being so blisteringly loud that you hurt yourself much less everyone else within 100 yards. Placement of your amp can help, if your speaker cab is on the ground it's not pointing at your ears . . . unless your ears are in your ass (I've been accused of having my head there . . .) If you use a combo amp, get a stand for it or put it on a chair to get it pointed in your direction. If you have a speaker cab tilt it back or lift it up. You don't want to be out of balance with the volume of everything else on stage or else you're just listening to yourself and not the other players which may be more important to making good music. Loud is cool, louder than everyone else is not so cool.

Getting a stand is super helpful for hearing yourself better, in turn requiring less volume to do so. With a hollowbody it's easier to coax harmonic feedback and subtleties in your tone so you sound better too! A road case is fine or even a strong chair is better than nothing. Milk crates have not yielded the desired tonal effects by YMMV

Old thread, may have said this before but will again: if you feel your tone comes from the perfect of driving preamp tubes + poweramp tubes + speaker saturation... And you want to gig. Buy multiple amps.

strumminsix wrote:Old thread, may have said this before but will again: if you feel your tone comes from the perfect of driving preamp tubes + poweramp tubes + speaker saturation... And you want to gig. Buy multiple amps.

Good advice. At a certain point you have to decide that playing out and having an audience enjoy your playing is more important than cranking up to an ungodly level and hurting people.

It's hard to judge what impact your volume is having out in the audience... I like to use them as a guide. If they come right up to the front of the stage, you're doing well. If they hang way back, you're probably too loud.

Rusty the Scoob wrote:It's hard to judge what impact your volume is having out in the audience... I like to use them as a guide. If they come right up to the front of the stage, you're doing well. If they hang way back, you're probably too loud.

A little awareness goes a long way. Fingers in their ears is another good sign you're too loud.

What a great thread full of excellent advice for all levels of experience, and a few cool pics too. Every bit of advice I can think of has been said or nearly said. I think one tip is underemphasized: the bandmates working together part. Having all the band members share a common understanding about managing the overall volume is essential. Cheap equipment and impossible rooms can be overcome by it. Great equipment and a perfect theater can go to waste without it. Sometimes the reason you can't hear yourself is because you haven't told your mates to ease up.

Overplaying can also lead to this. When played right, there should be space in the music for each instrument. When you get people banging and strumming wildly at just causes a mush of sound - and the volumes start to go up. Less is more.